Fitzgerald Books

There are MANY secrets of droon books. The Coiled Viper is special because it doesn't take place in Droon and different things happen to the characters because of that. I like how creative the author is when describing the characters, the places and what the characters do. This is an excellent book.

This book was really cool! I was expecting the coiled viper to move but it doen't because it is not really alive (I don't want to give it away.) This book is not scary at all. This book is different from others because most of the book takes place in the upper world (ours.) It is interesting to think about the characters from Droon in our own world. Have a good read!

Why do you ask? Because of all the other works of literature out there, this one is among the very few which commands my attention with its dizzying abstract imagery and depth. Zelda Fitzgerald was known chiefly as being Mrs. Francis Scott Fitzgerald, which was something she tried to overthrow by becoming a dancer, an artist, and a writer. For those who are interested in reading Zelda's work, this is the only book you need to buy, as it includes her novel "Save Me the Waltz", her play "Scandalabra", as well as her many short stories and articles.

"Save Me the Waltz" is a gorgeous book which Zelda modelled after her own life. Scott and Scottie Fitzgerald are David and Bonnie Knight, Judge Austin and Millie Beggs are Judge Anthony and Minnie Sayre (Zelda's parents), Joan Beggs is Clothilde Sayre (one of Zelda's sisters), Jacques Chevre-Feuille is Edouard Jozan, etc etc. The parallels are impossible to miss if you already know about Zelda's life. It is interesting to read Zelda's many descriptions, for you can actually imagine in your mind what she actually saw.

"Scandalabra" is a light comedic play which, if given a decent production and cast, would be a huge stage hit. Sadly, as far as I know there have only been a couple of productions and each of them were dismal failures. In order to inherit his wealthy uncle's fortune, a young, naive and happily married man must evolve into a scoundrel and paint his wife as an adulteress. All of the characters are careless beings trying to live in a serious world, and therefore it is hard to capture this strange balance on the stage.

Her short stories are all short and sweet vignettes, many of them were published under Scott's byline so they would earn more money rather than if they were only under Zelda's name. Among the best: "A Couple of Nuts", "Our Own Movie Queen" and "Miss Ella". Her articles were mostly done from the perspective of a celebrity's wife, and so naturally they are light pieces of fluff meant to build on the Fitzgerald myth.

If asked to describe this book in just one word, I would have to refuse. There is no single word that can do this collection justice.

Zelda Fitzgerald spent much of her life trying to struggle out of the shadow of her famous husband. For many years she was both a literal and figurative inspiration for his work, often helping him with his stories. This book of her writings allows her to finally take her own place in the fiction world. Her novel, Save Me the Waltz, is an incredible book in which language becomes surrealistic art. There are two sides to every story, and it is interesting to hear Zelda's interpretation of her life with Fitzgerald. The novel itself is a gradual emotional and physical breakdown as it documents a woman on her voyage of self discovery and artistic fulfillment. It has been said that Zelda was a true original and, once encountered, was never forgotten. The same can be said about her work. Though she will unfortunately always be paired and compared with Fizgerald, her voice and style is all her own.

This book and series are great!
An interesting story, great pictures and good ideas about using math in our everyday life.

A Collection for Kate is one of a series of books in the Math Matters collection. Each Math Matters book looks at one concept and features a character with a predicament to be solved.

About the book

Written in 1999 by Barbara de Rubertis and illustrated by Gioia Fiammenghi, this 32-page book was published by Kane Press. It is for children ages 5-7 or kindergarten through 2nd grade. The math concept in A Collection for Kate is addition.

The story

The setting for this book is Kate's classroom. The children signed up to bring in a collection and share it with their classmates. Kate had less than one week in which to come up with a collection. Kate went home and rummaged through all her things. She had "a little of this. She had a little of that." But she didn't have enough of anything to make a collection. She wasn't even sure how many things made up a collection so she decided to see what the other kids would bring.

On each day a different child brings in his or her collection and talks about it. Joseph had 2 tote bags with books. Nine books were about snakes and 5 were about lizards. Kate added that up and it came to 14, which sounded like a lot to her. The book continues with the children bringing in their collections: one child collected 2 kinds of magnets - 13 animal magnets and 11 food magnets. Kate was really worried because that added up to 24!

Kate went home and looked again but couldn't come up with a large collection. The book continues with many children sharing their collections, counting them out and Kate adding up the numbers. In some cases it was more than 2 numbers; some she had to add a row of 3 numbers. One child had so many types of pigs (glass, plastic) that Kate had to regroup to find the sum. (For those of you who learned math like I did - the old-fashioned way and don't teach, regrouping is the new way that math is taught. Rather than carrying for addition or borrowing for subtraction, children regroup.)

Kate ended up coming with a very creative collection to share with the children that they all though was "cool" and "a great idea." Her teacher commented on her collection and Kate answered, "Right...for me that just didn't add up."

The illustrations:

This is a very cute book and the pictures are adorable. The children look real. They are all sizes and colors with a variety of expressions on them. The pictures aren't intricate. They are simple faces, for example with a line for a nose and in some cases the faces don't have eyes. It adds to the appeal of the book as a children's book - one just to have fun with and not take too seriously. They are colorful and detailed when necessary. When Ben shows his shell collection, the shells are shaped like shells and in a box labeled with different states on them.

What your child will learn

The point of the book is achieved and achieved well. The point is to have a child read the story and get drawn into it so that he or she doesn't even know he is doing math.

You will find two important pages at the end of this book. One page is an addition chart with problems that you and your child can solve together or perhaps he can solve alone. I really feel after reading this fun book, it won't seem like work.

The other crucial page is the last one, which guides parents and teachers on how to use the book. For example, you can talk about different kinds of things people collect and what Kate might want to collect. You can look at a map and find the states that are mentioned in the book adding Social Studies to the lesson. You can have your child check to make sure Kate's math is correct. Of course it is, but your child won't know that and will want to make sure she is correct! You can have your child count the items in her classmates' collections, talk about less than and more than with your child, and write down some of the math words that he or she may have learned for the first time.

My thoughts:

This book can be used to read to your younger child or the child who can read alone can enjoy it by himself. Many of the words will be much too difficult for a 5-year old but most children at 7 will be able to read this by themselves or with just a little bit of help from you. I think this book (I would probably have the whole series!) is super for children who love math and who don't. If your child loves math he or she will love reading this and doing the activities at the end of the book. Have him do it on a separate sheet so he can do it more than once. You can also make up your own problems and hide them in the book for your child to find the next time he goes to read it.

If your child is math phobic this is a really fun way to get them interested in learning math or at least gets them to learn math even if they never get interested. I highly recommend A Collection for Kate. This book is perfect for the homeschooler also!

This book is available in hardcover or paperback. [...]

I really liked the book. It gives excellent tips on soccer. The tips come from a little boy that comes from England to America. The little boy's name is Mark. And his parents are getting divorced and he comes from England and moves to America to live with his grandparents. This book is great it shows you how the little boy over came his challenges. I like how he doesn't let any of the kids on the team get to him because he has to live with his grandparents. This is a great book. I suggest it for any reader.

I thought that The Comeback Challenge was great. Mark, who was on the scorpions team, was angry that his parents, who kept on fighting, and they each wanted him to live with him or her, because they were getting a divorce. Currently, he had to live with his grandparents, until it was settled. Also, the team captain Lance, didn't really like Mark that much. At the end Mark stays with his grandparents another year. Mark was the one to tell the judge that. Also at the end the problem with Lance was solved, and Mark was elected captain for the next soccer season.

When it comes to anything presidential, Michael Beschloss simply cannot write a bad book. He's an absolute expert in this area and also a fan of diary like detail. The book is very well written but quite long because of his bias towards telling the COMPLETE story. Given that, it is a tribute to his skills as a writer and story-teller that this book became a bestseller. The same heft by another author may not have sold so well. All said, it is a very fine read indeed.

Over a decade has passed since "The Crisis Years" was published. Since then, additional details about The Cuban Missile Crisis as well as JFK's personal life have floated into public view. Yet, despite the availability of this "new" information, even a cursory re-reading of excerpts from "The Crisis Years" confirms how accurate, comprehensive and riveting this account of two Cold War titans remains.

Moving at the fast clip of a smoothly written novel, this exhaustive summary of the Kennedy Years focuses on the thorny foreign policy issues that beset the Kennedy Team, some possibly of their own making. Beschloss does a wonderful job fleshing out the pros and cons of particular policy decisions as well as the personal interactions between the president and some of his key advisers, and offers plenty of nuance with regard to the nature of communications between Washington and Moscow during the Missile Crisis.

Perhaps the biggest single revelation in "The Crisis Years" was JFK's relationship with "Dr. Feelgood" and the extent to which the president was medicated on a regular basis, even as he prepared for the Vienna Summit. In our post-Watergate, post-Clinton era, one wonders whether public disclosure of JFK's steady reliance on pharmaceuticals would have been enough to push Nixon into the "win" column - and what that would have meant in terms of executing plans for the Bay of Pigs invasion, with all its fallout.

"The Crisis Years" has already stood the test of time. It will continue to do so for years to come. I recommend it to anyone who wants the unadorned facts - good and bad - about America's most legendary president.

This is a cute beginning to read book with a story that isn't choppy but refreshingly flows like a real story should.

The book was in GREAT condition! I used it for an oviparous animal lesson with my Kindergarteners, and it was just the perfect book. The children were trying to guess what animal might be in Daniel's egg. It went very well.

I thought this was a very well written book for youngsters. The pages are bold and colorful with easy to read words. It is a chapter book for the beginner reader with a story relating how a child's imgination can get away from them before they come back to earth. Bill Cosby writes this book for all to learn to laugh at ourself once in a while! And to think how we would react if we were in the same position as the kids in the story!!!

Little Bill finds a huge "diamond" and thinks he's rich. Little Bill agrees to share the money with his friends. Their ideas for spending the money are sweet and thoughtful. They're disappointed that the "diamond" is a paperweight but they overcome the disappointment very quickly. They play outside and laugh at how they were fooled.

My daughter enjoys the Little Bill series and continues to enjoy this new one. If you like the Little Bill series, you'll like this one too.

This a fine book. You won't be sorry you bought it -- or sent it to a friend, as I did.

I really enjoyed this Fiona mystery. Adler's fearless Irish girl detective may not be PC -- let's face it, she's a borderline alcoholic who lets her job get in her way of her love life -- but she's pretty real. The whodunit is a good one, with a lot of action that tosses the suspicions back and forth. Another good thing: this book has a cast of other strong female characters. You can pretty well guess who the "violet-eyed moviestar wife of Virginia politician" is modeled after; this is the author's signature light touch of humor that leavens a pretty horrible murder that has racist repercussions later on.

The Victorian Era's literature filled my childhood, and its poets (along with the Romantics) remain my favorites. I picked up this biography knowing I would find it interesting, but I didn't anticipate reading it as I would a novel.

That's just what happened, though. The author achieves such readability (even, I would think, for those who don't share my interest in European history) by focusing on her subject as if Victoria were a fictional protagonist. While Woodham-Smith supplies the necessary level of detail and background, and demonstrates the solid research skills that make this a serious work, she never forgets that the reason most readers pick up this book is - Victoria! A monarch who was also girl and woman, daughter and sister, wife and mother, in an era when each of those roles conflicted wildly with the one that destiny called on her to play.

Long out of print, but well worth tracking down.

The age of Queen Victoria is frought with myths and legends about the woman and her court. Mrs. Woodham-Smith brings the era alive with a personalized look at the queen and the many goings on before, during and after her reign. There are many stories about her and her famous consort, Prince Albert. This book also brings to light the persons that shaped Queen Victoria. You will truely understand why this was the Victorian Era after reading this book.

Along with its amazing choice of words and indescribable wit, The Great Gatsby has become the greatest novel an American author has ever written. F. Scotts Fitzgerald's genuine look into "The Roaring Twenties" gives us a view of a "lost generation" of aristocratic life and the American dream. It must be analyzed and compared to our time in the late 1990's and early second millenia. This book is a classic not because critics revered its content, it is as great as it is because America embraced it. The novel deserves your attention and leaves you satisfied. So when Nick Carraway says "So we beat on, boats against the current, born back ceaselessly into the past," the reader would close their books and look at the front cover of the novel and feel a little bit more complete.

The Great Gastby is simply captivating! It pulls you into this dream world of the "night life" and you long to be with these characters. With it's intense symbols, mysterious style, and it's stunning turn of events, this is a classic.